Rock Art in the Mik Mountains, Namibia, in the context of settlement history and landscape

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Peter Breunig
• Subject Area: Prehistory and World Archaeology
• Term: from 2017 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 347245043

The proposed project continues an ongoing project with the same title. The research is focused on archaeological remains in a region of north-west Namibia called the Mik Mountains or Doro !nawas (rhinoceros desert). Fully arid climate and a rocky landscape that is difficult to pass make the area an extremely remote zone of the eastern Namib Desert. The exploration of the Mik Mountains therefore provides an example of human habitats on the edge of the habitable world.Despite their remoteness, the Mik Mountains have been used by people with different subsistence systems for thousands of years. The presence of hunters and gatherers is attested by artifacts up to 50,000 years old, which were excavated in rock shelters, and scatters of artifacts on the surface, which date to the Middle and Later Stone Age. Numerous stone settings originate from pastoral nomads of the most recent prehistoric era. Among the archaeological finds, rock art is particularly numerous. So far, around 12,000 individual images have been recorded. They come from over 1000 boulders at 222 sites. Rock engravings or petroglyphs are the most common. The majority depict the animals living in the Namib and their tracks. A smaller part consists of paintings. Human representations dominate here. All images and sites are digitally documented for further analysis in a quality that comes close to the original. The focus of the rock art study is on the style and motifs of the engravings. Together they form the basis for a three-phase chronology scheme. The rock paintings are also included in the investigations. Some findings here indicate that there have been conflicts between the communities of painters and engravers. This can be seen impressively in paintings that have been destroyed and overlaid with engravings.The goal of the proposed project is an overall view of the prehistoric occupation. For this purpose, the investigation of the rock art and the other archaeological remains will be continued and completed. In addition, spatial data will be analyzed in a landscape archaeological context. The aim here is to understand the concept of the former inhabitants to exploit the desert-like habitat. This is connected with a new theoretical approach in the search for the purpose of the rock art. Rock art is not understood as expression of supernatural experiences by shamans in trance, as is usually the case. The concentration of the sites close to the presence of water, food and pastures makes an interpretation as territorial markers and as signs of the demand for these essential resources more plausible.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants